Mevolent has returned- no one knows how- and he's raising an army. With Valkyrie Cain and Skulduggery Pleasant out of the picture, it's up to the minions of Blogland to either stop him... Or join him.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Deidrich Warheit and the Elders: Darkside's Vision

((Looky loo. A new style. Replies to comments seem to be white on white though and I have to highlight text to see replies...otherwise it looks prettyful...but the white-on-white is really bad for my already impaired eyes :/))
When they got there, Koken'nin was cursing the use of Skype to hold the meeting. Ryuunosuke Koken'nin hated Skype. It always lagged for him and he could never work out how anything worked. He had to get his teenage granddaughter to help him out. Ami never did so with grace. She always hung around to swear at him in front of anyone else in the conversation. So Ryuunosuke was cursing Skype while Ami was cursing him.

The Australian Grand mage stood by and tutted disapprovingly, shaking her head. One of the South African elders had a look of pure confusion on his face. Raz couldn't help grinning at the confused look. Loren-Magnus looked sour. Deidrich looked tired and weary as he addressed the gathered elders. "Are we all here now?"
"I wanted nothing to do with this." Ryuunosuke replied in English. There was a strong chance he had not understood Warheit.
Skisma smirked. "You were roped into this as well, Koken'nin?"
"I was. I feel sorry for you, Magnus."
"I feel sorry for me too."
Amber, the Australian Mage, rolled her eyes. "What is this about, Deidrich?"
There were three mages there Skisma didn't recognise. Dennis Brysio-Blaidd of the Welsh Sanctuary and an American man with mismatched eyes, and the third one was Russian. The Russian woman spoke. "We're missing the Romanian delegate, Deidrich. And the Irish one."
"Thank you, Polina." Warheit pinched the bridge of his nose and introduced all the strangers to each other. "I told them the time I needed them linked in." He muttered darkly and switched to muttering in German. Able to understand him perfectly, Dennis winced slightly and pulled a face of disgust at the words. "Nice." He whispered to the person beside him in Wales. True to his first name, Dennis had a large glass of wine in his hand.

About half an hour later elder Mihai Viscol of Romania and Ghastly Bespoke of Ireland turned up. Viscol was a strange man, not entirely human. In fact, most would say he was not human at all. Some said it was an allergic reaction to magic. Outside his appearance and the fact that sunlight hurt him, he was quite a normal man. His skin and hair were snow-white, his teeth and nails grey and sharp as knives and his eyes almost wholly black. He did not apologise for being late. Ghastly did, saying he had been having trouble getting the computer to work and that then Skype had lagged and not joined the conversation properly the first five tries. Viscol kept his dark eyes on Polina Skromnyy. Deidrich clapped his hands together, smiling despite the sombre topic of the conversation at hand. "We're all here then. I'm sorry to bother the rest of you, but after talking to one of the USA's Sensitives I am afraid this is a problem." He spoke in English and Dennis translated for the one or two delegates who could not speak English. He had trained in Linguistics. Once the Welsh elder had finished, he continued. "He spoke of foreseeing Mevolent's next move...spoke of foreseeing the fall of several important men and women within Sanctuaries, and upon suffering another vision during his explanation, he saw you nine in particular as well as my associate, Johann Starke. I think I will hand over to the Sensitive in question...he should be able to give more information."
The colour seemed to drain from the American's face and he began to stammer his words. Mihai interrupted him. He spoke in Romanian.
"He said you're the least reliable Sensitive the Americans have." Dennis translated.
"I-In terms of the fact that I almost never have tangible visions, sir. If I have one which is more than just blurs then it is trustworthy, I assure you. I foresaw the return of Mevolent and all three of his generals, only nobody believed me..."
Bespoke leaned forward. "Go on. How exactly are we expected to be taken down?"
"It looks to me like a domino effect on your Sanctuaries. He plans to attack three at a time. The Czech Republic, Japan and Norway. Czech Republic will bring down the already weakened Russia, Norway affects Australia and South Africa as you three have close links and are expected to give support to one another. This is expected to make you more open. Japan is taken and sent after Germany which affects England and Poland but those particular Sanctuaries are not under threat that I have seen and can prevent. It will also hope to bring previously neutral countries into the fold. Wales and Ireland seem safe but the Irish Grand Mage is injured and they are hoping to win Ryuunosuke over and get him to fight against Germany and Ireland. They hope to secure Poland and Germany and use those against Wales. With all these countries secured, Mevolent hopes to be stronger."
"I refuse to join for or against Mevolent. If he attacks Japan, however, I will be forced to move against him." Ryuunsuke confirmed.
"He knows that. That's why he plans to kill you. Elder Hato thinks Japan should be on Mevolent's side, and so he plans to put her as Grand Mage after you die."
"I'll name Gyazara as my successor."
"I'm not sure that will work, but make sure your administrator at least tries to enforce it."
The South African elder raised his hand and spoke. Once again, Brysio-Blaidd had to translate.
"How does Mevolent plan to kill Elders Thorn, Hoop and Skisma?"
"Once the attack is launched on Norway, he hopes to get the Grand Mages all in one place after threatening either Skisma's life directly or that of his wife. Elder Hoop comes over instead of the Grand Mage. They are all in one place and gassed."
Skisma shuddered. "I think you just worsened my Claustrophobia."
"They plan to get to Elder Vrestreni through his brother and replace them. They plan to make one of your triplet brothers look like you in every way."
Raz frowned. "I doubt it is Maxim as he has that ridiculous tattoo on his neck and doesn't consort with people he isn't going out with...so Bonifac is going to usurp me..."
The Welsh elder began to choke on his wine. "What about the rest of us?" asked the woman beside him.
Amadeus Darkside shrugged. "I didn't see all your deaths, not clearly, just how you died. And which Sanctuaries affected which...best warn Poland and England as well."
"I'll do that." Dennis wheezed between coughs and splutters.
Amadeus nodded. "It's been brought forward due to a recent vampire attack. They lost few fighters and have vampires trapped in the castle, or so I've heard from a Gale Blaze. They hope to use this to their advantage in their attacks on the Sanctuaries."
"That was one of our agents refusing to do as he was told, I'm afraid." Ghastly hissed.
Koken'nin laughed. Warheit sighed. Some of what he had heard was new.
Amber Thorn sighed. "Skisma, what if we were to stage a little falling out? Between the Australian, Norwegian and South African Sanctuaries? Then Mevolent can't use you to get to us if we, say, state publicly that we refuse to offer any assistance to one another under any circumstances..."
Hoop raised a finger again and spoke.
Dennis, now able to breathe again, translated: "Uh...Elder Hoop says he must go due to an emergency call from India to do with octopodi and the eight-armed octopus men of India dancing the Cha-Cha in public again..."
"Damned Indian Octopus Men." Koken'nin hissed maliciously.
Confused, Ghastly signed off, but not before suggesting an increase in security.
There was a bit of casual chatter and Dennis introduced everyone to his most recent girlfriend, Platona Maleisus. The Welsh Grand Mage was incapable of holding a stable relationship. He did try. Amber and Loren agreed a time to arrange the staged argument with Grand Mage Visie. There was an argument over the real plural of octopus and Darkside left. Rasputin had to leave to get his plane and Deidrich had a pleasant chat with Ryuunosuke, which then turned into an argument over which was better out of dogs and cats. The answer was decided to be horses. Viscol stayed quiet throughout the whole conversation, his eyes still trained on Polina Skromnyy. Watching her with great, deep interest.